This invention relates to refrigerators in which food is stored, and more particularly, to a coated heating element installed in a refrigerator which reduces or eliminates food odors which may otherwise permeate throughout the food storage compartment of the refrigerator.
Refrigerators such as commonly found in households are used to store a wide variety of foods. Many of these foods give off distinctive odors. It is both unappealing and unappetizing to retrieve food from the refrigerator which is permeated with the odor of some other food. Wrapping food in a sealed container, a plastic bag, foil wrapping, etc., is one way foods which are particularly odorous can be prevented from contaminating other foods with their smell. However, this does not always work. The food may be improperly wrapped, or the bag or foil inadvertently opened during handling, being moved about within the refrigerator, or when other food is placed on top of, or beside, the package thereby displacing part of the wrapper.
In addition to wrapping the food, refrigerators have compartments in which foods can be stored so as to minimize any odors they give off. It is also known that putting baking soda or other odor absorbing powders in the refrigerator can reduce the effect of one food's odor on another. Another approach has been to install a deodorizing element in the refrigerator as part of the refrigerator's air cooling system. As shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,347,820, 5,291,742, 5,290,510, and 4,948,567, deodorizing elements of various constructions have been utilized to perform this deodorizing function. The deodorizing element is installed in the air circulation portion of the refrigerator by which cold or cooled air is directed through the freezer and refrigerated portions of the appliance. The deodorizing element is, for example, a glass tube whose outer surface is coated with an adsorbent material which is activated when electricity is supplied to the heating element so to remove any food odors in the circulating air. While this approach is effective, there is a cheaper, more efficient, less costly way of achieving this same result.